Author: Marcia Meara

Dual-Use of Meta Content Pt 6: The Marketing Plan

/ Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

Check out Story Empire’s post of the day: P. H. Solomon is back with more on Dual Uses of Meta Content. Today, he’s focused on using it to help you market your finished book, and I’m definitely taking notes on this one. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Part 6 of this series, and will want to share it far and wide, so others can learn some new tricks, too. Thanks, and thanks to P. H. for such an informative and helpful post! 🙂

P. H. Solomon's avatarStory Empire

Good morning everyone, PH here with you today sharing a a few more tips and ideas you can use in your writing career. This year I’ve been spending a lot of time on world building and marketing as I work toward the release new books. Just below, you’ll find a list of related posts from earlier in the year to discuss some of topics that I referring to. Please check those out if you need more specific information, because you shouldn’t be wondering what comes next when your book is ready for publication.

ListDual Use of Fiction Meta-Content Part 1

Dual Use of Fiction Meta-Content Part 2

Dual Use of Meta-content Part 3: Reader Guides

Dual Use of Fiction Meta-Content Part 4: Newsletters

Dual-Use of Meta-Content Part 5: World Building

Today, I want to talk about bringing everything together between the book and the rest of your story, the part…

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#TwoferTuesday No. 2 – #BookSale – ALL My Novels!

/ Marcia Meara / 34 Comments

Just want to let the Immediate World know all of my full-length novels are on sale from now until April 30! Yep! ALL. Of them. 🙂 Here’s the breakdown:

Book 1 of each of my series is always priced lower than the rest of the series, but now through April 30, both Wake-Robin Ridge and Swamp Ghosts can be downloaded for just $1.99! Here’s your chance to start a new series at a bargain price, if you haven’t already read these.

 

Buy Wake-Robin Ridge HERE

Buy Swamp Ghosts HERE

The rest of my novels will be on sale for $2.99 through April 30, too. So if you try Book 1 in the Wake-Robin Ridge series and enjoy it, you can download the other books in the series and save $2.00 on each one.  Included in this bargain price are  A Boy Named Rabbit, Harbinger, and The Light.

Buy A Boy Named Rabbit HERE

Buy Harbinger HERE

Buy The Light HERE

And if you checked out Swamp Ghosts, Riverbend Book 1, and enjoyed it, you can also pick up Finding Hunter and That Darkest Place for the bargain low price of $2.99! 

Buy Finding Hunter HERE

Buy That Darkest Place HERE

Such a deal, right? 😀 Offer good for a limited time only, as they say, so I hope you’ll take advantage while you can. And I also hope you’ll share the news of this sale far and wide. I don’t do this very often, but I thought it might be helpful to lots of folks trying to stave off boredom during their enforced vacations at home. I know I’ve been taking advantage of sales everywhere, and not just on books. It’s one bright spot in this Hot Mess we are all trying to survive.

Thanks, and if you do check any of these out, I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts. 

#TwoferTuesday No. 1 – The Countdown Continues – 13 More Weeks!

/ Marcia Meara / 11 Comments

As promised, a bit more in celebration and anticipation of the upcoming release of Peace Talks, the 16th book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Only 13 more weeks to go! 

~ A DRESDEN FILES TIDBIT ~

 All of the fabulous covers for this series were done by my favorite cover artist, Chris McGrath. Chris does some of the best fantasy covers out there, and his model for Harry Dresden (John Paul Pfeiffer) is on many of them, including Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, D. B. Jackson’s Thieftaker series, and more. John Paul is also the face I imagined for my own male “lead” in my Wake-Robin Ridge series. (I can dream, can’t I?) You can see more of Chris McGrath’s work HERE.

~ A DRESDEN FILES MINI-QUIZ ~

Which of these answers is correct?
Harry Dresden lives with three pet animals:
His dog, Mister
His cat, Mouse
His parrot, Beelzebub

(Note: Sorry, no prizes for this one. Just a fun way to see who’s been paying attention, who hasn’t, and who really doesn’t give a flip. 😀  Feel free to answer in the comments.)

And that’s it for today’s Countdown Post. I’ll be back next Tuesday with a few more images and tidbits for your browsing amusement. (And mine. Okay, mostly mine, probably. 😀 )

UNTIL THEN, REMEMBER:

Using The Five Senses: Touch

/ Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

Stop by Story Empire today to check out Joan Hall’s ongoing series on the Five Senses. This post deals with the 5th one, the sense of Touch, though Joan says she has another sense to share with us when she’s back again. Until then, her post is a really solid reminder of how we can use touch in our writing, something many of us overlook. I’m sure you’ll enjoy taking a look, and will want to share far and wide so others can stop by, too. Thanks, and thanks to Joan for another super post! 🙂 ❤

Joan Hall's avatarStory Empire

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you on this Monday morning in April.

Before we get started, I would like to thank Victoria Ziglar for clearing up the myth of one sense becoming heightened if a person loses another (as I mentioned in my previous post). As someone with personal experience, she pointed out that her hearing wasn’t any better than it was when she lost her sight, but she is better at paying attention to it. Such is the case for most people who lose one of their senses.

This is the fifth in a series on using the five senses in writing. In case you missed the others, here are the links:

Today’s topic is the sense of touch. We are always touching something. My fingers are on the keyboard as I type this. Clothes are touching my body. My glasses are perched on my…

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Going from Inspiration to Inception

/ Marcia Meara / 17 Comments

Staci Troilo’s latest Story Empire post is entitled “Going From Inspiration to Inception” and focuses on exactly that: how to take your spark of an idea and turn it into a solid plot. Her step by step example makes it very easy to see exactly what she means, and is well worth checking out. A great post for you to study, then share far and wide so other writers will understand the process, too. Thanks, and thanks to Staci for saying it all so well! 🙂 ❤

Staci Troilo's avatarStory Empire

Ciao, SEers. Last time it was my turn, I wrote about the first step in writing your masterpiece—idea generation. Some would argue that’s the most important part. Without that initial spark of creativity, wherever it comes from, there’s no story. But is it the most crucial part? That’s hard to say. If the spark can’t be developed past its initial interesting premise, it’s no more than a compelling tidbit. It may eventually inspire something larger or become a scene in a fully fleshed-out work, but on its own, it’s useless. By all means, save it in your inspiration file, but don’t waste your time trying to turn it into something it can never be.

Easier said than done, I know. If you liked it enough to write it down, you won’t want to give up on it. So, how can you tell if it’s worth working on?

Let me…

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#FirstLineFriday Submissions Are Now Closed! Here’s the Answer to Our Quiz, and the Names of Our Winners!

/ Marcia Meara / 15 Comments

Submissions for #FirstLineFriday are officially closed now. My thanks to all who emailed me with their guesses. Today, we have 2 winners: Annabelle Franklin and Sarah Brentyn.  Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy your prize, Annabelle. (Sadly, I couldn’t talk Sarah into accepting one, but I’m still happy she knew the answer, and wanted to play, anyway.)

And now, here’s the answer to today’s quiz:

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife” is the opening line to The Graveyard Book,  a young adult fantasy novel by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America in 2008. The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy Nobody “Bod” Owens who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.

Gaiman won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal recognizing the year’s best children’s books, the first time both named the same work. The Graveyard Book also won the annual Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Convention and Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book selected by Locus magazine subscribers. (As an aside, Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, and this book is a good reason why. It is well worth the read, even if the genre is not one you regularly choose.)

AMAZON SAYS:

Neil Gaiman’s perennial favorite, The Graveyard Book, has sold more than one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. This middle grade novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom. (Note: It is also a lot of fun for us grown-ups, too, as you might guess from the number of awards it won, including that Hugo Award for Best Novel.)

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he’s the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?

The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award for best novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult novel, the American Bookseller Association’s “Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book,” a Horn Book Honor, and Audio Book of the Year.

Buy The Graveyard Book HERE

That wraps it up for this week, folks. Thanks so much for taking part, and I hope you’ll stay tuned for another #FirstLineFriday quiz next week. See you then!

#FirstLineFriday #GiveawayContest #FreeDownloads

/ Marcia Meara / 20 Comments

Two weeks in a row! We’re on a roll with  #FirstLineFriday, our little quiz designed to help us appreciate some of the best opening lines in literary history. Told ya I was gonna do my best to catch up on things here at The Write Stuff, and I’m working on it! As usual, from the classics of long ago to the latest best-sellers, everything is fair game on #FirstLineFriday, and I have an interesting and slightly newer line for you today.

As always, the rules are simple:

  1. Be one of the first five people to email me before the game ends at 4:00pm, with the title and author of the correct book. 
  2. Do not reply here on the blog.Email only: marciameara16@gmail.com
  3. Honor System applies. No Googling, please.
  4. Submissions end at 4:00 P.M. EST, or when I receive 5 correct answers, whichever comes first.
  5. Winners who live in the U.S. may request a free download of any one of my books for themselves, or for someone of their choice. OR, if they’ve read all of the offered books, they may request a free download of my next publication.
  6. Winners who live elsewhere may request a PDF file of the same books, since, sadly, Amazon won’t let me gift you from the site.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Put on your thinking caps, because here’s today’s opening line: 

”There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” 

Well—whaddya think? Sound familiar? DON’T forget, it costs nothing to guess, but do remember, email answers only, please. Thanks! And now off I go to await your guesses. 

Character Archetypes: The Shapeshifter

/ Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

It’s Craig’s turn on Story Empire today, and he’s continuing his excellent series of posts on character archetypes. Today, he’s featuring the Shapeshifter archetype, and I can pretty much guarantee it isn’t what you might be thinking. Check it out, and then pass it along so other writers can also learn yet another way to create interesting characters, and why we should all consider this one. Thanks, and thanks to Craig for a super post! 🙂

coldhandboyack's avatarStory Empire

Hi gang, Craig with you today. This is post number six in the character archetypes series. In the Hero’s Journey, there are some common characters that are likely to show up in all stories. This doesn’t mean each archetype shows up in every story, and aside from the hero, the rest are kind of optional. Almost every story will have an assortment of them.

This series is to introduce you to them. Once you’re aware of them, you can decide if they can benefit the story you’re writing.

Today we have one of the more creative archetypes, and one that’s fun to play around with, The Shapeshifter.

This character is not what he/she seems, either to the other characters, or, in many cases, the reader. They differ from The Trickster in that tricksters are up front and honest about who they are. Shapeshifters, not so much.

This is the femme…

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Let the COUNTDOWN Begin!

/ Marcia Meara / 13 Comments

It’s coming, folks! Yes! Believe it or not, Harry Dresden is BACK! According to every reliable source I can find, Jim Butcher’s latest adventure from the Dresden Files, Peace Talks, will be arriving on July 14!! Think of it! That’s a mere 14 weeks from today! And, yes! I know I’m ending every sentence with exclamation points, but I’ve been waiting SIX YEARS for him to get this book written and published! Six! Years!

That’s six years without my favorite adult Wizard in the world. Six years of wondering how the upcoming catastrophe will be averted. (Whatever it was. I mean, come on. I can’t be expected to remember all the details for more than half a decade, can I?) And most important of all—six years of waiting to see if Harry and Sgt. Karrin Murphy will finally, at LOOOONG last, take their relationship to the next level, in the totally obvious direction we’ve been expecting over the fifteen previous books!

You may expect to find future Peace Talk updates, filled with Dresden Files tidbits and images, over the next 14 weeks–right here! Same time, same channel. Tune in as we Dresden fans await the Big Day! See you next Tuesday! 

PEACE TALKS, DRESDEN FILES BOOK 16 IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON!

Have you pre-ordered YOUR copy? I have.
(In case you hadn’t assumed that to be the case.)

My Review of Grinders by C.S. Boyack

/ Marcia Meara / 5 Comments

Sharing Don Massenzio’s terrific review of Grinders (by C. S. Boyack) today, because this book deserves a spot on everyone’s Kindle! It is a pure delight, and if you don’t believe me, just take a look at what Don has to say. His take is in sync with mine that Grinders is an imaginative romp through a not-too-distant possible future and an all-around fun read. After you check out the post, please remember to pass it along so others can discover both Grinders and Don’s website and books, as well. THANKS! And thanks to Don for being such a super friend and generous supporter of writers and bloggers everywhere!

Unknown's avatarBestselling Author

I recently finished reading Grinders, by C.S. Boyack. I always look forward to reading new books by Mr. Boyack and I was not disappointed with this one.

The thing that struck me immediately was the mixture of imagination and possible natural evolution of the developments in both the environment and technology in the future. The book takes place in a future iteration of San Francisco which sees it’s citizens dealing with rising waters that cause them to live beneath the surface in some cases and deal with the effects of rising tides within the city.

The use of the ‘grid’ for the mobility of vehicles is ingenious even describing a sync with handheld devices to warn those absorbed in their cell phones (yes this is predicted to still be a thing in the future) that they are approaching traffic by sending a warning to their screens.

It’s these little touches…

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